COMMUTER Peter Jenkin Morgan has waited a long time to get his own back.

But tonight he will exact his own terrible revenge on Great Western Railways on behalf of train-users.

For three months, he has travelled between Didcot and Paddington Station armed with a video camera.

And tonight he will offer millions of television viewers a nightmare view of the commuter's never-ending misery.

Two-hour delays, cancellations, horrendously overcrowded trains and pathetic excuses are all captured on film, shown on BBC 2's First Night tonight at 7.30pm.

It will all make for grim viewing for Great Western's new owners, FirstGroup plc, the transport operators who acquired the Rail company only two days ago.

Peter, 42, is a psychologist who travels to London every morning to counsel people about stress. But his video diary gives a first class view of the terrible strain of being a regular Didcot-Paddington passenger.

Because he was arriving for work in such a state himself, he ended up having to re-arrange his timetable to make sure he was calm enough to face stressed clients. "I became aware that I was getting to work in a pretty heated state," said Peter, of Bryan Way, Wantage. "I've had to arrange it so that I have time to compose myself. It would be unprofessional of me to launch straight into counselling after some of my experiences."

These include:

Longest journey: A three-and-a-half hour nightmare from Didcot to London, a journey that should have taken 41 minutes. This arose when Great Western chartered special trains for fox-hunting supporters travelling to a London rally. Regular train users were left to wait as the country folk headed off.

Worst excuse: Passengers left waiting at Reading for 20 minutes were informed by the senior conductor that their new driver had arrived at Reading on time but had gone off to buy a sandwich.

Most uncomfortable journey: Thirty-seven people were forced to stand on an overcrowded train (one-and-a-half hours late) to Cheltenham. People sat on luggage racks with one frail old lady reduced to sitting on a toilet seat. When the train eventually stopped a door opening mechanism broke, prolonging the misery by 12 minutes.

Peter, who is the chief welfare officer for the Medical Research Council, said: "I have been commuting for 11 years. The service has never been brilliant but over the last six to eight months it has become dire. "When you complain to Great Western sometimes they do not even bother to answer. I've received vouchers. But I don't want my money back. I want to arrive at work on time. It has reached the stage where I just dare not risk scheduling a client before 11am.

"If I worked as badly as this railway system works, I would expect to be sacked. No, I'd resign," said Peter, who pays £3,328 a year in fares and £290 to use Didcot Station car park.

Three other commuters were also invited to submit video diaries for the programme, but Great Western was the only company to refuse a request to film.

"I didn't let it stop me in the end. All the other companies gave permission. In the case of Virgin, Richard Branson even wrote to the programme makers, urging them to contact him if they had any problems with access."

Peter, who kept his video diary between January and March, said he remained bitter about likely windfalls for Great Western's executives. The privatised company has just been acquired by the bus operating company FirstGroup and Great Western executives stand to make millions of pounds from shares.

Peter said: "Things have become far worse since privatisation. Commuters get fed up when they learn these people are profiting massively from a service that consistently fails to deliver."

A spokesman for Great Western said: "In the past six months punctuality has declined. This has happened for a variety of reasons. For instance more trains are being run. There are now 38 per cent more trains going through Paddington Station than there were just three years ago. Infrastructure has caused delays and we are investing an extra £500,000."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.